Another screenshot of RideSurfing, showing how it charges and suggests a donation.

"It's because we are a donation-based community that we are within the boundaries of the law," Manutea Dupont, the 33-year-old co-founder of RideSurfing, claimed in an interview.

Despite this, RMS said drivers providing low cost services like RideSurfing were acting illegally under the Passenger Transport Act and risked fines. It said it would "look at Ridesurfing".

The Insurance Council of Australia has also warned drivers and passengers may be exposing themselves to substantial financial loss if they are involved in a collision or cause property damage while using ride-sharing services. But Mr Dupont said this was not the case.

"If you pick up a friend from his rugby game and drop him back home you will not call your insurance and ask if it was OK to do that," he said. "So our belief is that insurance companies understand what we're doing and also there are situations already where people have been sharing a ride with somebody else and they have [had an incident and] been covered."

How the app rates

Technology wise, the app is inferior to Uber, offering less functionality. For example, one only needs to look at the receipt feature lacking details about the trip taken. While Uber offers a breakdown of costs and a map showing exactly where you've travelled, RideSurfing only gives you a receipt with how much you've donated (if you decided to donate).

You also have to log-in to the app using Facebook, which is likely to be annoying for some.

The numberplate of the car picking you up is also lacking from the app, although this isn't too much of an issue when trying to locate drivers, as they have "RideSurfing" stickers on their cars, but it's missing as a potential security feature.

As for donations, one wonders if you'll be refused rides if you continue to pay $0.

Mr Dupont said being kicked off was a possibility.

"Somebody that is not going to be contributing to the community could be organically excluded from [it] because the drivers have two things they can do: they can refuse requests from someone and they can also rate somebody poorly," he said.

The types of people not donating would be "an extreme case", Mr Dupont said.

"We haven't seen that happening."

When it comes to the experience of riding in the cars, it can vary.

In one trip from Surry Hills to Glebe recently, the driver was very friendly. But he had decided to attach his navigator to the glass cover on his car stereo, causing it to fall off twice. When it fell, this caused him to swerve both times, making me feel uncomfortable. I suggested the driver might want to attach the navigator to the windshield, but he said he didn't like it there.

In the trip back to Surry Hills from Glebe with another driver, I had no complaints about the trip, although there were initially no drivers available. Getting ready to use another app like GoCatch, Ingogo or Uber, I then received a call from a RideSurfing staff member saying that a driver was being put on and that I should try again.

In another trip from Circular Quay, the driver was a bit all over the road and very erratic. I've had taxi experiences like this too though.

In the fourth and final trip I took as part of the testing, I had no complaints.

RideSurfing says drivers need to be 20 years old with at least three years' driving experience, have their own four-door, 2000 model or newer, car, have compulsory third-party insurance, pass a criminal and driving check for infringements, and have a full driver's licence. Their vehicle must also pass a 20-point vehicle safety inspection.

Mr Dupont said in future, drivers would need to have comprehensive car insurance .

He said donations went to drivers but RideSurfing was considering commissions or a separate fee to passengers.